BACK IN OTAVALO FOR THE DAY; RECENT WORK ON VILISAR; TEACHING TEACHERS IN COTACOCHI
Otavalo, Ecuador, 19 August 06
Back in Otavalo for the day
We were here in Otavalo with Toni and William for a week a couple of months ago now. Otavalo is famous for its weekly textile market. Cotacochi, 15 miles away, is where we have spent the last week giving a conducting seminar to music teachers. We are in the north, two hours from the Columbian border, surrounded by more-or-less active volcanoes (though none so active as Tungurahua in the central Sierras where we were also for two weeks just as the eruptions started six seeks ago.)
We will head back to Vilisar mid week after a stop in Quito to renew our visas and see if we can get the computer laptop fixed (screen has burned out). Can't keep up with my blogging by using internet cafes.
Recent work on Vilisar
We had Vilisar up on the beach and leaned against a wall last week to have her bottom painted. Every one of the cruisers must have come to watch. The Canadians seemed blasé but the California sailors were more interested; maybe they have not seen this before. The first day we went in before daylight. As the water was going down a panga went through throwing up a wash and Vilisar rolled against the wall. It looked pretty precarious since she was out a little farther perhaps than was good for her. She wound up hanging her mast against a wire fence and an electricity line. A little cosmetic damage to the fence and Vilisar's mast but otherwise all right. Anyway, the bottom is done for another year or two. I was worried about teredo-worm damage ever since we backed over a rock in Mexico. But everything looked just fine. I even managed to buy the same paint in Ecuador for $55 a gallon that I paid $135 for in Mexico and the USA. It meant we could hire some guys to help us.
When I get back to the boat I have a bunch of repairs to make including replacing the spreaders with better wood (carpentry and wood is really cheap here too) and replace the metal plates on the mast that hold the inside of the spreaders. The tang on one plate tore right off while we were going to windward on the way from San Cristobal to Bahia. Metal fatigue, I reckon. The lower aft starboard shroud fell to the deck in the night. On top of this, the tab for the windvane steering broke off at some point during the trip and disappeared (not sure when) and the bobstay chain also snapped from corrosion; I had intended to replace it in Bahia. That's fixed now too. None of these events seemed to bother Vilisar who kept going in a straight line for God knows how long after each event. Even the cumulative effect did not seem to bother her terribly.
I had a pair of long oars (8 feet) made at a carpentry shop in Bahia ($24 the pair; I told you carpentry work is cheap here) and will paint them and finish them when I get back too. About time to paint the dinghy again too. So, as usual lots of work. We get brand-new batteries when we get back so we hope we shall finally be able to use electric lights and listen to CD's again. The alternator works now and the solar panels will be checked over. There is not actually that much sun in Bahia; although it is on the ecuator, it is usually overcast at this time of year because of the Humboldt Current. Not too hot, thankfully, but not enough sun to keep the batteries up without occasionally running the engine. Finally, we had long patches put on both the mainsail and staysail covers so that their lives have been extended for a couple of years at a low price. We are having a new cover made for the jibsail.
Vilisar is now thirty-three years old. Although sound of lung (i.e. hull, superstructure, galvanised rigging, mast and, I think her diesel engine), her other systems - electrical, sails, covers, etc. - are getting pretty old and need replacement. The tropical sun over the last two years has been really hard on things. Our next big purchase will be new sails, I hope before we head to the South Pacific next spring.
Teaching teachers in Cotacochi
We concluded our week-long workshop with six music teachers of the elementary and middle school level. The workshop was intended to be two weeks but, given that it was summer break and the people were free all day, it was decided to telescope it into one week. The five guys and one girl were all in their twenties and good musicians. They however have no experience in conducting and want to get childrens and adult choirs started (part of the plan to get a thousand childrens choirs started in Ecuador). They made fabulous progress in the week. We also gave small talks on other aspects of starting and managing choirs of all sorts including choir discipline, learning new music, (free) music resources, etc. etc. They don’t know it yet, but conducting will be the smallest part of what they do as choir leaders. Most of the time goes to raising money, smoozing with parents, preparing programmes, admin details like concert venues, instrumentalists, etc. Latin Americans are very, very lax about time usage, attendance, punctuality. Nice as they all are, after living in anal Germany, this drives us crazy since we often have to repeat things in the class for those who drift in up to 90 minutes late or do not show up at all and not so much as an apology let alone a by-your-leave. As choir leaders they will have to deal with that problem themselves. As I kept trying to tell them, the single most important success factor for any choir is rehearsal time. If singers are not present at all or come late, that’s wasted time and will frustrate their goals.
The participants, as I said, were really nice. They invited us to a picnic up at the volcanic-crater lake on Mount Cotacochi. We were not at the summit by a long shot but we were still at probably 4,000 metres. The lake in unfathomable and bubbles with gas in the middle. Cotacochi is an active volcano from that point of view though it has not erupted in the lifetime of these kids.
Today they also took us out to lunch on carne Colorado, i.e. ‘red meat’, beef strips marinated in betel juice. Despite what you are thinking it tasted great. After lunch we moved to Otavalo where some of them are playing a gig this afternoon in the marketplace. Geovanny is also helping Kathleen buy a ‘siku’ (double-rowed Andean pipes) for her to take to Germany with her after Christmas. Here you go straight to the instrument maker and tell him what you want. He said he would have it ready in an hour. While she goes to pick it up I sit here in the internet café. Jim and Katie from S/V Asylum back in Bahia walk in. They had been in Cotacochi looking for us yesterday while we were at the lake.
It has been a rather tiring but entirely fun week. When we arrived we still were not entirely clear what the group expected of us. As it turned out they wanted conducting and a lot of other information for getting a children's choir started. We now have a syllabus that we can use elsewhere.
Each of the workshops we have done in Ecuador (there have been four now) have been entirely different: the first one was coaching a semi-new choir of semi-or complete beginners, the second was for professional conductors in Quito; parallel to that we taught voice technique to amateur choir singers along with some conservatory students; and finally, we taught music teachers how to get choirs started and how to conduct. In a couple of weeks we travel to Machala in the banana-belt south of Guayaquil. We shall see if there is something new there too.
Our plans are still unclear after October. We could sail to Panama in Vilisar, assuming all the work has been completed. Or we could leave her in Bahia and travel overland to other countries. We might be invited to five workshops there too. Kathleen will be in Germany for two months right after Christmas to do a music gig in Frankfurt. Not yet sure what I shall be doing. We still sort of have French Polynesia on the agenda for April or May next year. But everything remains vague. Clearly Latin America is rubbing off on us.
Otavalo, Ecuador, 19 August 06
Back in Otavalo for the day
We were here in Otavalo with Toni and William for a week a couple of months ago now. Otavalo is famous for its weekly textile market. Cotacochi, 15 miles away, is where we have spent the last week giving a conducting seminar to music teachers. We are in the north, two hours from the Columbian border, surrounded by more-or-less active volcanoes (though none so active as Tungurahua in the central Sierras where we were also for two weeks just as the eruptions started six seeks ago.)
We will head back to Vilisar mid week after a stop in Quito to renew our visas and see if we can get the computer laptop fixed (screen has burned out). Can't keep up with my blogging by using internet cafes.
Recent work on Vilisar
We had Vilisar up on the beach and leaned against a wall last week to have her bottom painted. Every one of the cruisers must have come to watch. The Canadians seemed blasé but the California sailors were more interested; maybe they have not seen this before. The first day we went in before daylight. As the water was going down a panga went through throwing up a wash and Vilisar rolled against the wall. It looked pretty precarious since she was out a little farther perhaps than was good for her. She wound up hanging her mast against a wire fence and an electricity line. A little cosmetic damage to the fence and Vilisar's mast but otherwise all right. Anyway, the bottom is done for another year or two. I was worried about teredo-worm damage ever since we backed over a rock in Mexico. But everything looked just fine. I even managed to buy the same paint in Ecuador for $55 a gallon that I paid $135 for in Mexico and the USA. It meant we could hire some guys to help us.
When I get back to the boat I have a bunch of repairs to make including replacing the spreaders with better wood (carpentry and wood is really cheap here too) and replace the metal plates on the mast that hold the inside of the spreaders. The tang on one plate tore right off while we were going to windward on the way from San Cristobal to Bahia. Metal fatigue, I reckon. The lower aft starboard shroud fell to the deck in the night. On top of this, the tab for the windvane steering broke off at some point during the trip and disappeared (not sure when) and the bobstay chain also snapped from corrosion; I had intended to replace it in Bahia. That's fixed now too. None of these events seemed to bother Vilisar who kept going in a straight line for God knows how long after each event. Even the cumulative effect did not seem to bother her terribly.
I had a pair of long oars (8 feet) made at a carpentry shop in Bahia ($24 the pair; I told you carpentry work is cheap here) and will paint them and finish them when I get back too. About time to paint the dinghy again too. So, as usual lots of work. We get brand-new batteries when we get back so we hope we shall finally be able to use electric lights and listen to CD's again. The alternator works now and the solar panels will be checked over. There is not actually that much sun in Bahia; although it is on the ecuator, it is usually overcast at this time of year because of the Humboldt Current. Not too hot, thankfully, but not enough sun to keep the batteries up without occasionally running the engine. Finally, we had long patches put on both the mainsail and staysail covers so that their lives have been extended for a couple of years at a low price. We are having a new cover made for the jibsail.
Vilisar is now thirty-three years old. Although sound of lung (i.e. hull, superstructure, galvanised rigging, mast and, I think her diesel engine), her other systems - electrical, sails, covers, etc. - are getting pretty old and need replacement. The tropical sun over the last two years has been really hard on things. Our next big purchase will be new sails, I hope before we head to the South Pacific next spring.
Teaching teachers in Cotacochi
We concluded our week-long workshop with six music teachers of the elementary and middle school level. The workshop was intended to be two weeks but, given that it was summer break and the people were free all day, it was decided to telescope it into one week. The five guys and one girl were all in their twenties and good musicians. They however have no experience in conducting and want to get childrens and adult choirs started (part of the plan to get a thousand childrens choirs started in Ecuador). They made fabulous progress in the week. We also gave small talks on other aspects of starting and managing choirs of all sorts including choir discipline, learning new music, (free) music resources, etc. etc. They don’t know it yet, but conducting will be the smallest part of what they do as choir leaders. Most of the time goes to raising money, smoozing with parents, preparing programmes, admin details like concert venues, instrumentalists, etc. Latin Americans are very, very lax about time usage, attendance, punctuality. Nice as they all are, after living in anal Germany, this drives us crazy since we often have to repeat things in the class for those who drift in up to 90 minutes late or do not show up at all and not so much as an apology let alone a by-your-leave. As choir leaders they will have to deal with that problem themselves. As I kept trying to tell them, the single most important success factor for any choir is rehearsal time. If singers are not present at all or come late, that’s wasted time and will frustrate their goals.
The participants, as I said, were really nice. They invited us to a picnic up at the volcanic-crater lake on Mount Cotacochi. We were not at the summit by a long shot but we were still at probably 4,000 metres. The lake in unfathomable and bubbles with gas in the middle. Cotacochi is an active volcano from that point of view though it has not erupted in the lifetime of these kids.
Today they also took us out to lunch on carne Colorado, i.e. ‘red meat’, beef strips marinated in betel juice. Despite what you are thinking it tasted great. After lunch we moved to Otavalo where some of them are playing a gig this afternoon in the marketplace. Geovanny is also helping Kathleen buy a ‘siku’ (double-rowed Andean pipes) for her to take to Germany with her after Christmas. Here you go straight to the instrument maker and tell him what you want. He said he would have it ready in an hour. While she goes to pick it up I sit here in the internet café. Jim and Katie from S/V Asylum back in Bahia walk in. They had been in Cotacochi looking for us yesterday while we were at the lake.
It has been a rather tiring but entirely fun week. When we arrived we still were not entirely clear what the group expected of us. As it turned out they wanted conducting and a lot of other information for getting a children's choir started. We now have a syllabus that we can use elsewhere.
Each of the workshops we have done in Ecuador (there have been four now) have been entirely different: the first one was coaching a semi-new choir of semi-or complete beginners, the second was for professional conductors in Quito; parallel to that we taught voice technique to amateur choir singers along with some conservatory students; and finally, we taught music teachers how to get choirs started and how to conduct. In a couple of weeks we travel to Machala in the banana-belt south of Guayaquil. We shall see if there is something new there too.
Our plans are still unclear after October. We could sail to Panama in Vilisar, assuming all the work has been completed. Or we could leave her in Bahia and travel overland to other countries. We might be invited to five workshops there too. Kathleen will be in Germany for two months right after Christmas to do a music gig in Frankfurt. Not yet sure what I shall be doing. We still sort of have French Polynesia on the agenda for April or May next year. But everything remains vague. Clearly Latin America is rubbing off on us.
posted by rjb @ Saturday, August 19, 2006
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